I’m all a’TwiTTer!

I’ve posted about Twitter before and why I use it.. but things have changed a bit so this is kind of an update. Plus, I need a “Twitter landing page” for RhodesTer.com so that’s the main purpose for writing this, but I thought I might as well post it here too.

Alrighty then, here we go..

Hey, I’m Dave.. glad you found me!

I live in Palm Springs, with a wife and two cats. The wife is online too – you can find her at coffeesister.net and on twitter as @coffeesister. Her name is Dorian, by the way, and yes.. she IS kind of a coffee snob. I’ll actually drink instant coffee if need be, whereas she uses it to clean the toilet. No it doesn’t stain, surprisingly enough.

I’m a writer. I write freelance and other stuff. Someday I’ll be famous. Right now I’m almost famous, like the movie with Kate Hudson. Coffeesister, aka Dorian, tells me that I actually need to write a book to even be considered for being famous, so I might do that one of these days. She also reminds me that one of our cats also uses Twitter and goes by @shadowsillybutt, and that I forgot to mention it.

(Psst.. I didn’t forget.)

Before we move on to Twitter stuff.. be sure and subscribe to my blog. Or at least check it out and bookmark it, if you’re kind of old-fashioned and haven’t quite caught on to subscribing yet. People seem to like it, so maybe you will too.

About Twitter

I have Internet friends who don’t use it and of course that’s perfectly fine.. I mean, who really cares? But it’s getting more and more difficult to avoid due to its astronomical rise in popularity. Comedy shows are spoofing it, Time Magazine is putting it on the cover and Ashton Kutcher has amassed over two million Twitter followers as of this posting. By the way, if you join Twitter you don’t need to be one of them. You’re welcome.

Not too long ago I’d hear, “I don’t use Twitter because I have no interest in it whatsoever.” When a friend said something like that I’d just think it kind of sad but hey, if they didn’t want to do it then why should I care? But now I’m more inclined to think them similar to the folks who said, “Why in tarnation would I be gettin’ me one of them new-fangled TEE-VEES? ‘Fibber McGee and Molly’ sounds just fine on my ol’ Philco radio and I’ll be dagblasted if’n I’m gonna be changing up so I can see monkeys dance.”

Yeah, Twitter has definitely become the elephant in the room, and certain friends of mine are holding out and trying not to get stepped on. I hope they can run pretty fast because the elephant’s getting bigger everyday.

Why I use Twitter

I’ve found that a lot of people use Twitter for a lot of different reasons. There are no strict guidelines in the Twitter TOS about how you should go about it, other than not spamming and not getting all abusive. The rules kind of change as the service grows but basically just be cool, don’t spam and don’t abuse other people, and you’ll be fine. I mainly just socialize, crack jokes and do a *little* bit of blog promotion. I really can’t stand self-labeled “Twitter Experts” who have nothing to do with the service (they don’t actually work for Twitter) yet they tell you all these things about how to get more followers, be popular and.. *cringe*.. MAKE MONEY.

I see it as kind of a big party I drop in on everyday, and I’d think there would be something wrong with the attitude of “Okay, I’m walking into this party to shake hands, meet people and learn what they’re about.. I wonder how I can make money off of them?” I have nothing against marketing and making money, so don’t get me wrong.. if you want to use Twitter for that then what do I care? Best of luck, but I’m not going to follow you.

The “Twitter Experts” also tell you things like “Use your own picture so that people can see you!” and “Tweet so many times a day, making X amount of tweets engaging and sociable, and X amount for promotion!”

BULLSHIT. Do whatever you want to do. I use this avatar on a lot of things including Twitter, just because it’s sort of become my “brand” over the past few years and people associate it with RhodesTer. I use it in blog comments too, as a Gravatar. If anyone wants to see a real picture of me, here ya go.

As far as the number of tweets you do promoting stuff, I’d have to agree that if it’s all you do, I probably won’t follow you. When I get a new follower notification by email, I pop over and look at their Twitter Profile (by the way, I NEVER look at their link.. so I’m surprised you’re looking at mine. But, hey.. thanks.) In the Twitter Profile is a page of the most recent tweets that the person has done and if it’s nothing but links, well.. I’m not interested. Again, I’m thinking of the party scenario. If I were talking to someone at a party and all they did is stand there and say, “Check out this book! Check out this article! Check out this blog!” then I’d wander off to go get another beer and find someone interesting to talk to.

I’m also really not down with anyone who doesn’t have a sense of humor. Up until recently I was following one of the aforementioned “Twitter Experts” who was always saying things like, “I’ll be here to take your Twitter questions for the next 30 minutes. Ask me anything, I will answer all!”

Okay, so I messaged him, “I often tweet by candlelight and sometimes I get the candle a little too close to my monitor.. is Twitter flammable?”

He didn’t answer.. I thought he said he’d answer all!

So, let’s go back to the party scenario and say we’re all standing around holding drinks while that same guy talks about iPhones because he’s some sort of self-proclaimed iPhone expert (which, by the way, just seems smarmy and arrogant.. doesn’t it?) He tells us if anyone has a question about an iPhone that he’ll be happy to answer it. If during the questions I make a joke about iPhones I would at least hope he’d say, “HAHA, very funny! Okay, next?” But if he completely ignores me in front of everyone then I’d feel like he’s kind of an ass and off I’d go for another beer and to once again find someone more interesting to talk to.

The equivalent on Twitter is to block him, which I did.

Who I follow back, and who I don’t

It’s really more of a question of who I actually pay attention to because I use a program called Seesmic Desktop, which has columns that let me sort out the riff-raff from the ones I actually find interesting. I used to use Tweetdeck which basically does the same thing, but when Seesmic Desktop came out I liked it better.

The Mighty Seesmic Desktop and its columns of Twitterers

There are four columns (you can have more if you want) and in the far left column on mine is everyone I follow. I seldom look at it, and on Seesmic Desktop you can click to make that column consist of just the private messages you receive. I have it on that setting a lot, so I don’t even see everyone I follow.

The second column consists of friends and people I find interesting. I don’t say who’s in it, so don’t ask. But if you’re interesting and engaging, as in you actually respond to me if I say something and we go back and forth a bit, then chances are you’re in the second column. I pay much closer attention to what the folks in the second column are tweeting and I’ve been known to promote a user from the first column to the second after having followed them for a while, and I’ve bumped someone from the second if they get annoying. I seldom unfollow or block them, unless they’re really annoying.

My third column consists of the celebrities I follow, which is about 25-30. I don’t care if anyone else thinks this is cool or not. The ones I follow are interesting to me, or else I wouldn’t have them on there, and putting them in the third column gets them out of the stream of friends in the second column who are much more likely to answer me. Sometimes I respond to the celeb tweeters, and a few times I’ve actually gotten replies. A few of them claim to read every response they get, even though they obviously can’t answer them all.

My fourth column is reserved for replies. When someone answers me I see it right away. Whoo!

I follow almost everyone back with the exception of obvious spammers, but I don’t much care for the marketers either. You know the type.. it’s someone with 38,349 followers and they’re following almost that many, and their profile is all about this “ten day course that will change your life” or “how you too can get 10,000 new followers in a day” or “how you can make a thousand bucks a week from Twitter.” I guess there’s a place for them but not on my desktop, so I BLOCK ‘EM. I especially block someone if it looks as though they found me through one of those automated systems to get new followers, which kind of makes me feel like I’m in a herd of cattle. Why block them instead of just not following them back? Because if I don’t they’ll hit me up again later.

In closing, I love Twitter..

I think it’s an amazing design that’s getting better every day, and I’ve gotten to know some pretty cool people from it. A few of them I’ve actually met in person. Some others I’ve gone on to Skype with, and/or they’ve become regular visitors to my blog.

Keep in mind that regarding everything I’ve said, there really is no agree or disagree.. it’s just how I use it. You can use it however you like, follow whoever you want (or not) or just never use it at all.

If you’re here as a new follower, then I hope we click. If we don’t, it’s no big deal. Remember the party scenario.. I don’t click with every single person I meet at that type of gathering and I know you don’t either – with some people it’s ten minutes of awkward conversation and then we’re off on our separate ways.

If you’re not a new follower yet, well.. let’s give it a shot. We have nothing to lose.

RhodesTer on Twitter/Subscribe to this blog

Tagged as: Seesmic Desktop, Twitter